The Bowery Presents

The Bowery Presents upcoming shows

Menomena

Suckers / Tu Fawning

Venue:
Date:
Fri 10/01
Notes:
18+
Doors: 6:00 PM / Show: 7:00 PM
$17.50 advance / $20.00 day of show
Tickets
Menomena
official website
myspace
“There's nothing quite like trying to capture the spirit of art rock in a series of painstakingly tuned paragraphs
without coming off as pretentious or verbose. Especially when you're writing about your own band. We
probably should have hired someone to draft this for us, if only to give the illusion of an objective third party
saying flattering things about our new record, instead of having to take personal ownership of every sentiment
voiced here. No one wants to sound self indulgent, on top of it all. But that's what any home-recorded band
comes down to. What's more indulgent than spending every day listening to your own voice isolated in
headphones for two years straight? That's pretty much what I've been doing lately.
It's been three-and-a-half years since the release of our last album. Roughly two of those years were spent
touring and working on the music contained on Mines, and the rest was spent continuing to work on the new
music and on arguing over it. On one hand, it seems like forever. On the other hand...well no, it still seems
like forever. Nothing holds up a process like an indispensable band member being both a perfectionist and a
control freak. Especially when your band features three of these types. And we certainly haven't gotten any
more agreeable in our old age – quite the opposite.
However, in the wake of brutal disagreements, unrelenting grudges and failed marriages (not to mention a
world full of modern terrorism, natural disasters and economic collapse) somehow this band is still standing.
Mines was constructed the same way we've always made music: We jammed and recorded hundreds of loops
spontaneously, using the same ol' trusty software program Brent wrote as a college assignment back in the
day. We individually pieced the resulting loops together like jigsaw puzzles, adding in voices and
sentimentality. We made big strides building skeletal song structures, and did a decent job collaborating as the
ideas began to take shape. But just when a song became familiar to one of us, the other two members broke it
apart again, breaking each others' hearts along the way. We rerecorded, rebuilt, and ultimately resented each
other. And believe it or not, we're all proud of the results.
I should have started this thing off with a catchy headline. Something like, "Mines will blow off your limbs like
an Italian VS-50!" or, "Get ready to strike gold in the mineral-rich soil of Mines!" But again, I can't speak too
smugly here. So then, Mines. Land mines, ore mines, plural possessive "mines"? All of the above, I guess...
But mostly the latter. I'm just realizing now that I've already illustrated the possessive by choosing to write this
myself.
As usual, the end somehow justifies the means. It's done, and it's the best record we could make at this time
in our lives. Thank you for listening.
Love,
Danny / Menomena”

Menomena, the Portland, OR, based trio, will release their fourth full-length record, Mines, July 27th on Barsuk
Records. Danny Seim, Justin Harris, and Brent Knopf perform, sing, arrange, and create Menomena songs.
On stage, Danny usually plays drums and sings. Justin usually plays bass, saxophone, MOOG, electric guitar,
and sings. Brent usually plays keyboards, bells, guitar, and sings.
Suckers
myspace
Suckers Seek a Wild and Imaginative Musical Landscape... The experimental side of indie pop has gotten a nice little creative boost lately, thanks, in part, to the artistic contributions of bands such as Brooklyn's own Animal Collectiveand Portland's Menomena. Tack another "Made in New York" outfit on this short list of artists challenging the sonic limits of modern day indie pop. Comprised of Quinn Walker, Austin Fisher, Brian Aiken, and mystery man Pan, Suckers offer indefinable and stunningly unpredictable fare that ranges anywhere on the sonic scope between sedate guitar songs and crunchy, erratic drones. It is a new musical landscape that Suckers have set out to find; one that lies beyond the fringes of more traditional pop, psychedelia, noise, and folk music. Packing their knapsacks with a wild assortment of ambient guitar work, ritualistic percussion, wolf pack vocals, and a variety of other knick knacks (organs, keys, horns, etc), Suckers set up camp in a manic, yet wildly imaginative place where pop music is contrived of equal parts melody and dissonance; a place where musical limits do not account for much. - David Pitz, Deli Magazine
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